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Notes from the Investigation (Part 1)
For All Nails #153: Notes from the Investigation, Part 1 By Noel Maurer and Dan McDonald ---- :Coyoacán, Chiapas, U.S.M. :3 January 1975 Immanuel Moctezuma entered the office on the 23rd floor of Navy Headquarters on the War Department campus. It was the first time he had been in the NUSM pyramid. In fact, this visit had been the first time since becoming President that he had even seen NUSM officers wearing anything other than dress whites. That, however, was a phenomenon of the past. Now he was the Commander-in-Chief as well as the President. An armed man in a brown Constabulary uniform pounded on the office door. A man wearing lieutenant commander's stripes on his dark blue uniform opened it. He immediately jumped to attention when he saw who was behind the constabulario. "All rise for the President!" he shouted. The men behind him, and they were all men, dropped what they were doing and presented arms. A few pens clattered to the ground. The President and his Chief of Staff pushed forward into the office. It was crowded with desks and filing cabinets. There were even some calculators scattered around. "Carry on!" barked the President. The assembled naval officers dropped their salutes, but none relaxed. This was unprecedented, if not entirely unexpected, a visit from the President of the United States of Mexico! "Where's Commodore Bain?" asked El Popo. "Here, sir," came a voice from the back of the room. "Commodore Bain. Good to see you. This is Chewy Enciso, my chief of staff. Do you have a private office where we can talk?" "Uh, yes sir," said the young -- for his rank -- naval officer. "Right in here, sir." He moved to a door fronted in translucent glass. The president nodded at the constabulario, who opened the door, looked around, and motioned them in. The office, like the rest of the War Department that the president had seen, was not ostentatious. Apparently the only thing ostentatious about the War Department complex was the exterior, a frightening collection of pyramids reminiscent of ancient Tenochtitlán, decorated with complex and baroque tile murals representing Mexican history from the Conquest to the Wilderness Walk to Manumission. The interior, well, the interior looked like any collection of cheap cubicles anywhere. Once they were inside, the door shut, the President got to business. "Commodore Bain. I have heard very positive things about you." "Thank you, Mr. President." Commodore Daniel Bain kept his composure, but he was a little bit discomfitted by the attention. In the past week Constabulary officers had gone over every little bit of his life, trying to insure where his loyalty lay. The entire Navy had been turned upside down, what with the disappearance of the Admiral, half the NUSM's general staff, and an entire naval battle group -- which appeared to have ended up in the hands of the FANG. Still, the Navy had never gotten along particularly well with the Secretary of War, and, unlike the poor Army, the Constabulary had let up on what remained of the top brass in the last few days. "You know why I'm here," continued the President. It was a test. Bain passed it. "The reactors, Mr. President?" El Popo nodded. "I want to know where the research took place and their current status." "Well, Mr. President, I think the research was completed near the I-don't-need-to-know location of the K-bomb program. That was an Army project. Secretary Mercator deliberately kept the Navy out of it. As for the first applications, the [[Necessity is the Mother Of . . .|USS Cochise]] is based in Pearl Harbor. You'd never know it from a flyover. Its pen looks like an ordinary aircraft hangar that just happens to have its back to the docks." The Commodore paused. "Uh, Mr. President, I hope Secretary Mercator didn't have his people in Pearl. Otherwise, we've lost our only operational prototype. If we have the Cochise, and its operational data, we probably can commission the Alaska-class aircraft carriers, and have them ready in two years, modulo snags, and there probably will be in the reactors." "The designs are complete on the Alaska class?" asked Chewy. "Yes, sir, we're ready to start construction once we know that the reactor design works," answered the Commodore. "What reason to we have to keep the program under wraps?" asked the President. "Sir, we can declassify the Cochise at your whim. I'd suggest waiting, however, until her friends Black Hawk and Sitting Bull have started their sea trials. Assuming Secretary Mercator doesn't have them as well." The Commodore looked worried. Chewy and the President looked at each other. They had to trust someone, and Commodore Bain had passed all the security checks. The President answered the Commodore's implicit question. "Mercator's people were at Pearl. The Cochise is gone, and has been since before Christmas." He let that sink in. "We still have the other two. I think." He looked at his Chief of Staff. Chewy nodded affirmative. The Commodore looked relieved ... well, he looked less worried. "Commodore, is there anything else I should know about the program?" Worried or not, Commodore Bain thought on his feet. "Sir, if, uh, certain allies had, er, partial specs on the Cochise, we might have an easier time hunting it. I can make sure that these flaws are at least partially addressed on the Black Hawk and Sitting Bull, sir." "Good idea," said the President. He glanced at Chewy, and Chewy nodded. Assuming that "certain allies" meant the Reichsmarine (and what else would it mean from a naval officer?), it would happen. "You'll need to send us a report on those design flaws, Commodore. ASAP." "Yes, sir. I can have it for you the day after tomorrow, sir." Still thinking on his feet, Commodore Bain seized the opportunity. "Sir, while I've got you here we need to decide which design we'll take for the new carrier-launch interceptor. I like Malverde's design myself, but my vaquero friends insist that Resnick's is better. Given these are the same vaqueros who swear by the Diablo, that's high praise. I think you should talk to Captain Tuttle, in Aircraft Development. He's Navy, sir." The implication that Army officers couldn't be trusted was left unsaid. "You'll have the chance to make that recommendation more formally, Admiral Bain," said the President. The look of confusion on Bain's face was priceless. "You're in charge of both programs now. I expect regular status reports, and I want that report on the Cochise design flaws tomorrow, not the day after. Mr. Bisteni from the Constabulary thinks highly of you. I want you to pick your own team, but in close consultation with Bisteni. You'll have access to him, of course, and I hope that soon these tonterías can end, but for now así es." He paused. "I want the submersibles up and running as soon as possible, and I want detailed status reports about the reactors on my desk twice a week. Do what you have to do to make that happen. Me explico?" "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. You can count on me, sir." "I know that. I'm looking forward to those reports, Admiral." The president saluted the new admiral, whose snapped to attention and presented arms back. Then El Popo nodded, and motioned to Chewy and their uniformed guarrua that it was time to leave. The investigation was not over -- there was a lot more work to do, and a lot more people to surprise. ---- Forward to FAN #154: Necessity is the Mother Of . . . Forward to 3 January 1975 (American War): Pound Diplomacy. Forward to USM Politics Notes from the Investigation (Part 2). Return to For All Nails. Category:American War Category:USM politics